Tag: news

Authors in Indie Blu(e) Anthologies: Susi Bocks

Published on by Susi Bocks12 Comments

Thank you to all the staff at Indie Blu(e) for this wonderful and unexpected feature on your blog! I am so fortunate that you’ve selected many of my pieces for the anthologies you’ve published. I am eternally grateful to be alongside all the wonderful voices you selected, and that we spoke to many important issues of our time, and revealed our humanity. A special thanks to Candice for what she has written and shared, making me blush more than once reading the positive compliments, reminding me how fortunate we are to have become such good friends. ❤ Thank you so much for sharing more about me with your readers. I appreciate that very much!

Indie Blu(e) Publishing

One idea we had that we thought might be fun is to highlight some of the authors, artists and writers IN Indie Blu(e) Anthologies. So with some regularity that’s the plan. If you have had work in an Indie Blu(e) anthology we’d LOVE to hear from you about your latest work and plug it here.

Indie Blu(e) believes passionately in getting to know our authors/artists/writers and this is one way the rest of you can find out more about the incredible people we’ve had the honor to host in our anthologies. Perhaps it will also bewitch you into purchasing a copy, but first and foremost, we want you to meet our talent.

With that in mind I’d like to introduce you to Susi Bockswho has been in several Indie Blu(e) anthologies including SMITTEN – This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women, Through the Looking…

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Pure Haiku – Ghostlight theme Acceptance!

Published on by Susi Bocks33 Comments

So happy Freya to have this piece selected for the Ghostlight theme and to be in a group of such talented writers! ❤

purehaiku

travel to the stars
past conscious experience
into the surreal

© Susi Bocks

If you enjoy the short and succinct, join me at I Write Her for the minutiae! 

This haiku is part of our Ghostlight theme.

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2021 Comes To A Close

Published on by Susi Bocks42 Comments

Another year has gone by but somehow this year was much like the previous one. With Covid still being uppermost in our minds, and politics continuing to challenge our sanity, I’m frankly happy to put this one to bed and await something better at the clock striking Midnight soon. Maybe next year will finally free us to be more adventurous? Oh, yes, please…

But 2021 wasn’t all bad, especially not on WordPress!

Since the end of 2020, the views on I Write Her blog have nearly tripled and added a bit over 700 followers—WOW!! I am forever grateful to the readers for the love and support they show me each and every day! Not only do you inspire me, but I’m also thrilled to learn from you and grow with you too. Thank you!

hands formed together with red heart paint
Tim Marshall – Unsplash

While I didn’t submit as much as I would have wanted to this year, I was still very fortunate to have others showcase my work at these wonderful publications below.

10/23/21 Perpetual Pain – Edge of Humanity
10/15/21 Perpetual Pain – MasticadoresUSA
9/16/21 My Disappearance – MasticadoresUSA
5/25/21 Downpour, Ennui, and Going Down in Through the Looking Glass Anthology – Published by Indie Blu(e)
4/20/21 Will As A God – Edge of Humanity
4/14/21 Mangia! – Edge of Humanity
4/10/21 Prolific Pulse Heart Beats Reading
4/5/21 Prolific Pulse Coffee Table Reading – Social Justice discussion & “The Sound of Brilliance” readings
3/27/2021 Heart Beats – Prolific Pulse Press Anthology
3/18/21 Reena’s Exploration Challenge #176 – If you are a book, what would the cover look like?

Don’t forget – submissions for The Short of It will officially close at Midnight tonight! This is your last chance to get them in! To date, I’ve received so many wonderful pieces that I’m excited to feature in 2022. I think you will enjoy the new voices, as well as the previously featured poets and writers. I look forward to sharing them all with you next year.

For those of you who would like to purchase the first anthology of featured poets and writers in 2020, click the link below the image!

Amazon

What you can look forward to in 2022

The Short of It features will post every Friday, and the format and structure of all other postings will remain the same – one post/day featuring either challenges or prompts, and Redux & Reblogs once/week. For the most part, this will stay the same, unless I have something urgent I need to convey or if challenges change.

My focus will be on submitting to other publications again (let’s hope I will do more this upcoming year!) but also on creating a series of chapbooks that have been on my mind. More news to come on that front. 🙂

I hope that you all enjoy your New Year’s celebrations, in whichever way you choose to entertain yourselves, and please continue to remain safe, healthy, and happy!! Wishing you much joy!

I love you all!!

*Image credit for featured image – Moritz Knöringer – Unsplash

Interview With Susi Bocks- Editor Of The Short Of It

Published on by Susi Bocks27 Comments

Thanks to Anna of Anna’s Styles blog for the interview! How fun to share more about The Short of It, and answering her questions. I really appreciate her posting this interview for her readers. 🙂

Anna's Styles

Dear readers,

I am happy to announce that I have once more interviewed an interesting personality. She is an author, poet, blogger and editor. I love her blog so much and I would be leaving a link to it so you can visit and read her amazing posts. Here’s how my interview with her went. Read and enjoy.

1. Please introduce yourself briefly. (This is my current BIO with all links)
Susi Bocks, writer/author/poet, has self-published two books – Feeling Human and Every Day I Pause. She is the Editor of The Short of It which recently produced its first anthology – The Sound of Brilliance. Bocks’ has works published in the anthologies Through The Looking Glass – Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within, As The World Burns, SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women and in VitaBrevis, Spillwords, 

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The Short of It – LAST CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

Published on by Susi Bocks6 Comments

December 31st is the deadline for next year’s features. Don’t put off getting your pieces in any longer!

For submission guidelines, please CLICK HERE. Please make sure you follow them to ensure your work is read. I’m anxiously awaiting your exquisite thoughts!!

To all those whose work is selected, they will be featured online in 2022 and perhaps in the 2nd Volume Anthology slated for 2023. But it won’t happen unless you submit!

For those who haven’t picked up a copy of Volume 1 yet, click on the link below the image to purchase it!

On Amazon

The Short of It Pushcart Prize Nominations

Published on by Susi Bocks18 Comments
carte blanche - Pushcart Prize News! - carte blanche

Since the beginning, my goal has been to promote the work of poets and writers with a gift for expression in a minute fashion. I’m thankful that this reputable organization exists to help further that effort.

I am very happy to announce the following poets’ pieces were submitted to the Pushcart Prize Committee. Those selected were nominated for their contributions to the Sound of Brilliance Anthology—a collection of the best featured on the online publication. It was so hard to trim it down to only six pieces as the contributions were already the best of the best!

So, please give a round of applause and wish them the best!

Scars by Goff James

Silence by Lisa Tomey

Sailing by Freya Pickard

Thunderstorm Conversations by Ali Grimshaw

Fulfillment by Marisela Brazfield

A Monarch Task by Anita Neal

Honored with a Pushcart Nomination!

Published on by Susi Bocks38 Comments
Prolific Pulse Press – Heart Beats on Amazon

I am so happy to share with you that Lisa Tomey of Prolific Pulse Press, LLC emailed to inform me my piece “Sweet Embrace,” featured in the anthology Heart Beats, was nominated for the illustrious Pushcart Prize!! I’m blown away and filled with gratitude for this news! Lisa’s support and belief in my work continue to push me to greater heights. For that, I am very thankful. It means so, so much to me—what a great end to my day!

Here is the poem which tugged at her heart to prompt the nomination.

Sweet Embrace 

even though life burdens us with chronic ills – unfortunate, inconvenient, and untimely  
they are all these  
but regardless of diminishing delights, despite the looming fear 
our wants still long for self-determined joy 

parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, close friends, lovers, children  
and the cultural norms of some countries laid aside 
we demand what once was so common, that which we’ve side-lined out of concern 
and care for the living and vulnerable 

while we slowly readjust to a new reality, creativity forces our hand 
determined to fill the wants that now have become needs 
saving us from further despair, no more taking hits to our equilibrium 
as the plastic curtain crinkles in the arms of who we love 

Hello Again, WordPress Friends and Community!

Published on by Susi Bocks65 Comments

I’M BACK!!

The month of August was wonderful! Not only did I celebrate my 59th birthday but I enjoyed a lovely vacation with my husband in Mexico. Taking a step back from blogging gave me the much needed rest I was hoping for.

Not to say there weren’t some ups and downs. We enjoyed some excitement in Cancun due to Hurricane Grace! Thankfully, it was only a Category 1 but we experienced heavy winds! Oh, and our room ended up with lots of water. You can see how beautiful the beach was afterwards. The rest of the vacation was lovely and it was so hard to say goodbye.

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments on my Peace Out post, I hope I didn’t miss responding to anyone. If I did, please let me know! Also, since I didn’t read any blogs in August, please do share any links you think I should check out.

One of the reasons I wanted to take off August was to get back what felt had been missing in my writing. After much thought and reflection, I think it came down to me feeling pressured to provide content and specifically not the content I want to put out. So, I’ve decided that I will continue to do my reblogs three times a week, the challenges I’ve always participated in, and create new poetry the rest of the time. And I will only post once per day. Of course, this will change slightly when I post the featured The Short of It writer every Friday starting in January 2022.

I will no longer do stories because that just isn’t what turns me on the most about writing. My initial intent with IWH was to speak the truth about myself including occasional opionating and pontificating, sharing my thoughts and being philosophical, dredging up the past on worked through issues and sharing the writing of others’ precious work. I want to get back to my roots, so to speak. Stories, especially the ones from 5 Day Tales/Kindle Vella or anything more than 100 word stories requires a different kind of creativity that isn’t really the direction I want my writing to take.

Following this new schedule will allow me more time to submit my creations elsewhere but more importantly, by limiting daily posts, I will have more time for creativity. And hopefully, meet a need for those readers who read my contributions every day.

Speaking of Kindle Vella – please don’t forget you can read those stories uploaded for free if you use the FREE tokens they gave to the new readers! Every story that is read does pay a divident to the author, so please, go read them!! Thank you!

For your convenience, here are all the stories on Amazon!

The Little Red Suitcase

The Boss

Dipped in Yellow

Falling from the Tree

The Dark Park

An American Conflict

C

The Shifting Sands

Led Astray

3025

The Passageway

Bridge to the Stars

Secrets Between Lovers

News on The Short of It Submissions – it started off with a lot of interest and I’ve been in contact with many who have already been accepted and are scheduled to be featured in January – April! For those who sent in their submissions while I was off, I promise to be getting to you soon! 🙂 I’m so grateful for your support. And if you haven’t sent anything in yet, there is still time. Submissions will be accepted until December 31st.

That’s all for now! See you again tomorrow. ❤

Peace Out

Published on by Susi Bocks74 Comments
green palm plant during daytime
Jeremy Bishop – Unsplash

This is a message to all my readers, whether you’ve been here since the beginning a little over three and a half years ago or just started following me. While I have appreciated all the support, the interaction, the comments and the love, it’s time for me to take a rest and step back.

I’ve felt a gnawing in my brain that is taking bites out of my creativity. This has left me feeling empty while producing daily contributions to the blog. While I’m not lacking for inspiration, I do not feel as inspired and for this reason, I need to take some time to figure out where I need to head next. I’m sure it will be writing, always, but I need to understand if it means continuing such structured blogging as before or not.

I know many of those people who’ve been following the stories were expecting my next one to arrive on Kindle Vella in August but my brain, in its current state, has not found “the story” yet. Because I’ve been struggling to create it these last few weeks, with still nothing more than a few concepts and no material, this is what prompted me to decide to take the time off. I didn’t want to continue to feel so pressured to deliver when it seems I’m just not able to.

In addition, from taking a break from writing and reading blogs on WordPress, I will also leave Social Media behind for the most part. I do think this desire to detach is coming from feeling burned out. And this comes from many things – Covid, politics mostly – with a bit of aging and the new problems that come with it. I need a break!

For those of you who have submitted to The Short of It, rest assured that I will be still fully engaged in the reading of all your work and will communicate with you via email about the status of your contributions.

So, this is my last post for this month and I will be back in September. I will read your comments today, but after today, I’ll be off of WP until next month. Hopefully, by then I will have figured out a way forward. I appreciate your patience and understanding! I love you all!

Thank You on wooden blocks
Courtney Hedger – Unsplash